Automatic grader

ABSTRACT

Apparatus for inspecting tobacco leaves, which comprises means for arranging a group of tobacco leaves into a stream, means for propelling each leaf of said stream in a ballistic path, a background plate mounted adjacent said ballistic path for establishing a predetermined color criteria, optical means mounted in spaced relationship with said ballistic path and said background plate for comparing each tobacco leaf while it is above background plate to the color criteria established by said background plate, and means for sorting the leaves in accordance with the results of the comparison thereof with said color criteria.

United States Patent 1m Hays 145] Aug. 7, 1973 AUTOMATIC GRADER [75]Inventor: Gordon W. Hays, Midlothian, Va. g Knowles ssislamExaminer-Gene A. Church Asslgnee: Incorporaied, whlte Plains,Att0rneyGeorge W. Price and Barry l-l. Fishkin 1 Filed= y 20, 1971 1571ABSTRACT [2]] Appl. No.: 145,243 Apparatus for inspecting tobaccoleaves, which comprises means for arranging a group of tobacco leaves 52us. (:1. 8 i Pmpenmg leaf Said 151} [11. c1. .3??? 1 18133422 Wballis'ic Path a background PM mounted [58] Field of Search 209/1 1 1.6,73, 115, iii? f i l l establ'sh'ngg P 209 1 L8. 198/68 e co or cr1ter1a,opt1cal means mounte 1n space relat1onsh1p w1tl1 sald balhstlc path andsard back- [561 5:121:arzgzzzaziaz tz rhi 25.2?213131215 PATENTS lishedby said background plate, and means for sorting golo: 209/1 1 1.6 theleaves in accordance with the results of the comparoz auereta. 198/68iso th f 'h 3,380,460 4/1968 Fuis et al. 209/l l 1.6 X n ereo wlt saldcolor cntena 3,066,797 12/1962 Fraenkel 209/11 1,6 18 Claims, 5 DrawlngFigures PAIENIED AUG 7 I975 SHEEI 1 [IF 5 R 11 m m m m NE QM.) L m @& mmQM Q\ GORDON w. HAYS ATTORNEY PATfiNIED M113 7 3. 7 5 O 8 8 2 SHEET 2(IF 5 IN VEN TOR. GORDON W. HAYS ATTORNEY PAIENIEU AUG 7 I973 SHEET 5 0F5 INVENTOR. GORDON W. HAYS W ATTORNEY AUTOMATIC GR-A'DER BACKGROUNDcolors which are deemed objectionable.

Tobacco leaves are harvested at a desired degree of maturity and aresubsequently cured, 'usually with the circulation of air, and/or withapplied heat and mois- 1 ture. This curing process alters the color'ofthe leaves generally from-a shade of green to a shade of 'yellow'orlight brown, depending on the type of tobacco. However, because of thevariability 'in the natural grown plants, and due to -the uncertainty ofthe exact degree of maturity of the leaves when harvested, the effect ofthe curing process on arandom group 'of leaves 'is such that all leavesdo not achieve thedesired color. Those leaves which do not achieve thedesired color are considered objectionable for use in the subsequentmanufacture of smoking articles for reasons of appearance or of taste.Therefore, the tobacco leaf processor will normally sort the leavesprocured from the markets in order to remove the leaves withobjectionable color in order that the largest bulk of remaining leavesis of higher quality.

In the currently accepted mode of sorting, the tobacco leaves areconditioned by adding moisture to make them suitably pliable andresistant to breakage from mechanical handling and are then conveyed toa flow splitting device to separate the total flow into lesser rates offlow to permit searching for quality. Generally the lesser flow rate isbetween 400 and 600 pounds of leaves per hour. This reduced flow is'diverted to a conveyor belt which conveys the flow of tobacco at asuitable speed and height past human sorting personnel who visuallyobserve the leaves and manually pick objectional leaves and foreignmatter out of the flow.

Tobacco is grown in many different areas, and in several varieties. inaddition, the leaves of a particular variety grown in a particular area,while generally graded at the time of harvest according to relativelocation on the stalk of a plant, frequently require additional gradingfor color quality of the leaf. Variables in the crop, as well as thequality specified by the manufacturer eventually manufacturing theintended smoking article, determine the degree of perfection required inthesorting function in the leaf processing plant. As a result, thenumber of sorters required per unit of flow may vary. In the sortingprocess described above, each of the sorting conveyor belts may havefrom one to four sorters searching the diverted lesser flow, with twosorters per belt being most common. I

It can be seen that this method of leaf-sorting entails aconsiderableamount of hand labor which is not only expensive but issomewhat inaccurate and unreliable.

Apparatus to automatically sort leaf by color has previously beendeveloped. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,380,460 entitled Tobacco Strippers and/orGraders by F. Fuis, .lr., et al., issued Apr. 30, 1968, an apparatus isdisclosed for feeding individual tobacco leaves to a roller conveyormounted on a horizontal surface with one or more exit gates between therollers and a grading area at the entrance to the conveyor. A lightsensitive device records the color of the leaves and triggers theappropriate gate so that a conveyed tobacco leaf can be exited to acollector positioned under the gate. Sucha'device is-limited in capacitysince the leaves mustbe conveyed in single file and the speed of thedevice is limited by practical mechanical considerations.

U.S. 'Pat. No. 3,368,568, entitled Method and Apparatus for Orienting,Aligning and Conveying Tobacco Leaves discloses a method and apparatusconsisting of a rotating carrier or turntable for conveyor leaves forsubsequent sorting and processing. To convey a large quantity of leavesperunit'time requires, however, that the turntable be driven at highenough speed to obtain a highlinear velocity of the periphery of theturntable. At high speeds, there is an appreciable centrifugal forceacting on the leaves positioned on the vertical surface at the rim ofthe table. Consequently,the ejection means for selectivelyremoving'leaves from the rim of the turntable must apply an appreciableforce to the leaves to'overcome the centrifugal force. This damages theleaves particularly in the breaking off of particles of the lamina. Inaddition, the high peripheral speed of the turntable requires that theejection means be able to respond in a small fraction of a second.

SUMMARY It is, accordingly, an object of this invention to provide animproved system for sorting articles.

his a further object of this invention to provide apparatus for rapidlysorting articles such as tobacco leaves in accordance with the colorthereof.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide a method ofand apparatus for dividing a flow of articles such as tobacco leavesinto first and secondgroups by diverting from the first group of certainleavesin accordance with color criteria.

It is another object of this invention to provide apparatus for dividinga random grouping of articles such as tobacco leaves into flow lanes forindividual inspection as to the color thereof.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide apparatus fordividing a random flow of articles such as tobacco leaves into singlefile streams preparatory to inspection as to their colorcharacteristics.

It is yet still further an object of this invention to provide apparatusfor projecting a succession of articles such as tobacco leaves in aballistic path over a background plate for inspection as to their colorcharacteristics.

Briefly, one aspect of the invention comprises means for dividing alarge bulk flow of tobacco leaves into units of flow sufficiently smallin quantity so that when placed on a moving belt the leaves will bespread for scanning by an optical/electronic unit, which is the'subjectof co-pending application S.N. 277,499 filed Aug. 3, i972 which is acontinuation of application S'.N. 145,444 filed on even date herewithand which is now abandoned. A diverting mechanism coupled to theoptical/electronic unit operates to separate objectionable leaves fromthe flow path of the good leaves.

in accordance with the objects, apparatus according to the invention maycomprise means for arranging a group of tobacco leaves into a stream,means 'forpropelling each leaf of said stream in a ballistic path,,abackground plate mounted adjacent said ballistic path for establishing apredetermined color criteria, optical means mounted in spacedrelationship with said ballistic path and said background plate forcomparing each tobacco leaf while it is above background plateto thecolor criteria established by said background plate, and means forsorting the leaves in accordance with the results of the comparisonthereof with said color criteria.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of apreferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is an end view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the apparatus shown in FIGS. I and 2.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged side elevation view of a portion of the drivemechanism for the preferred embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an end view of the drive mechanism viewed from line 5-5 ofFIG. 4.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to FIGS. l-3 ofthe drawings, a preferred embodiment of the invention generallycomprises an upwardly inclined infeed conveyor for transporting a flowof unsorted articles, such as tobacco leaves, in the directionindicated. The leaves fall of the end 12 of conveyor 10 and fall towardsa second upwardly inclined conveyor 14 disposed below conveyor l0 and inposition to receive tobacco leaves falling therefrom.

A diverting mechanism 16 is mounted between conveyors 10 and 14 and isdisposed to intercept a predetermined proportion of the tobacco leavesfalling from the first to the second conveyors and propel them towards abaffle 18, which arrests the horizontal component of the velocity ofeach leaf and causes it to fall in a substantially vertical path to aflow dividing unit 20.

The flow dividing unit 20 operates to divide the flow of tobacco leavesinto four approximately equal streams, each stream being approximatelyone tobacco leaf wide. The streams fall onto a high speed conveyor belt22, which is driven at approximately 500 feet per minute so that theleaves in each stream falling thereon are spaced out therealong. Thus,the leaves falling onto conveyor 22 are arranged in four single filestreams.

The high speed of the conveyor causes each leaf to be hurled off the endthereof in a ballistic path that is initially substantially horizontal.A background plate 26 is mounted beneath the ballistic path and anoptical/electronic unit 28 is disposed above the ballistic path in aposition to view the leaves as they pass over the background plate. Thebackground plate establishes a color criteria for the leaves and thesubstantially horizontal path of the leaves provided by conveyor belt 22permits the background plate to be mounted in very close proximity tothe path of the leaves without undue errors from shadows, optical rangevariations and the like. The optical/electronic unit 28 examines thecolor of each leaf and compares it to the criteria established by thebackground plate.

The optical/electronic unit 28 is the subject of copending applicationS.N. 277,499 filed Aug. 3, 1972 as a continuation of the now abandonedapplication S.N. l45,444 filed on even date herewith, and is fullydescribed therein.

A reject unit 30 is mounted adjacent the ballistic path and is operableby the optical/electronic unit 28 to divert leaves found by the unit 28to be not in conformance with the criteria established by the backgroundplate from the ballistic path for a secondary collection area 32. Thoseleaves that are in conformance with the established criteria fall into aprimary collection area 34.

More specifically, the first and second conveyors l0 and 14 are mountedover pairs of spaced rollers, designated 40 and 42, and 44 and 46respectively, each of the rollers being mounted on a shaft, designated48, 50, 52 and 54 respectively. Shafts 50 and 52 are mounted betweenspaced walls 56 and 58 which form part of a housing 60 for the conveyorsand the dividing unit 20.

The diverting mechanism 16 includes a shaft 62 mounted between walls 56and 58, a sheave 64 mounted thereon and a plurality of paddles 66mounted on the shaft 62. The shaft 62 is actually mounted in opposedslots 68 in the walls 56 and 58 and the unit is translatable in theslots 68 by conventional means (not shown) to vary the proportion ofleaves diverted from the second conveyor 14.

The two conveyors 10 and 14 and the diverting mechanism 16 are driven bya motor 70 having an output shaft 72 and a sprocket 74 mounted on theshaft 72. A corresponding sprocket 76 is mounted on shaft 50 and a chain78 drives the latter from sprocket 74. A second sprocket 80 is mountedon shaft 50 and a pair of sprockets, 82 and 84, are mounted in spacedrelationship therewith on shafts 62 and 52 respectively. A chain 86drives the latter two shafts from sprocket 80.

The flow dividing unit 20 includes a pair of counterrotating rollers 90and 92 disposed to receive the flow of leaves from baffle 18 and mountedend to end and in axial alignment with each other (FIG. 1). The actionof the counter-rotating rollers 90 and 92 is to divide the flow ofleaves in half at the juncture points 94 of the two rollers with halfbeing driven to the left as seen in FIG. 2 and half to the right by theaction of the rollers on the leaves. The juncture point 94 is half waybetween walls 56 and 58 and thus can be described as occurring half wayalong the width of the flow of leaves from baffle 18.

The divided flow of leaves from rollers 90 and 92 is divided again by apair of baffles 96 and 98. The baffles are located in the path of theflow from the respective rollers and are half the width thereof. Baffle96 is disposed in the path of the flow from roller 92 and diverts halfof that flow to the right as seen in FIG. 2 and baffle 98 is disposed inthe flow from roller 94 and diverts half of that flow to the left asseen in FIG. 2.

With this arrangement, the initial flow from baffle 18 is divided intofour substantially equal portions along the width thereof, or stated inanother way, the original shower of leaves that was substantiallyuniform between walls 56 and 58 due to the uniform diverting action ofpaddles 66 acting on the substantially uniform distribution of the mainflow across the width of conveyor 10 is directed downward and is dividedinto four parts at three points equally spaced between the walls 56 and58.

Three channel members, 100, 102 and 104 are mounted between walls A andB just above conveyor belt 22, as seen in FIGS. 2 and 5. These channelmembers, in co-operation with side wall members 106 and 108 of housing60, guide the four respective flows onto the conveyor belt 22. Thechannel members also define four zones of flow, or streams, or lanes onthe conveyor belt, designated 110, 112, 114 and 116 respectively. Thethree channel members are spaced equidistantly apart such that the fourlanes are of equal width, that width being selected being approximatelythe width of a tobacco leaf.

Those leaves that float toward the tops of the respective channels aredriven to one of the respective lanes by rollers mounted adjacent thetop of each of the channel members and designated 118, 120, 122 and 124respectively. Roller 118 is mounted above channel and is driven in acounter-clockwise direction as seen in FIG. 2 to urge leaves into lane110. Roller 124 is mounted above channel 104 and is driven in aclockwise direction to urge leaves into lane 116. Rollers and 122 aremounted end to end and in axial alignment and above channel 102 and aredriven so as to be in counter-rotation with each other. Roller 120 isdriven in a clockwise direction and urges leaves into lane 112 androller 122 is driven in a counter-clockwise direction and urges leavesinto lane 114.

Referring now to FlGS. 4 and 5, the rollers 90, 92, 118, 120, 122 and124 are driven from a motor through a drive arrangement generallydesignated 132 and mounted on and within a drive housing 134. Morespecifically, rollers 90 and 92 are mounted along the axis of a shaft136 that is mounted for rotation between spaced channels 138 and 140,rollers 118 and 124 are mounted on shafts 142 and 144 respectively androllers 120 and 122 are mounted along the axis of a shaft 146. Theshafts 142, 144 and 146 are mounted for rotation between a horizontallydisposed beam 148 and a wall 150 to drive housing 134.

Motor 130 is provided with an output shaft 152 and a sprocket 154 ismounted thereon and driven in a counter-clockwise direction as seen inFIG. 5. A pair of sprockets, 156 and 158, are mounted in spacedrelationship with sprocket 154 on shafts 142 and 146 respectively.Another sprocket, 160, is mounted on an idler shaft 162 journalled inwall 150 of the drive housing 134. A chain 164 is mounted over sprockets154, 156, 158 and to drive shaft 142 in a counterclockwise direction andshaft 146 in a clockwise direction. Roller 118 is mounted directly onshaft 142 and is thus driven therewith in a counter-clockwise direction.Roller 120 is mounted directly on shaft 146 and rotates therewith in aclockwise direction.

A pulley 166 is fixedly mounted on shaft 142. An

idler tensioning pulley 168 is mounted in spaced rela-- tionship withpulley 166 on a stub shaft 170 rotatably mounted in a bracket 172affixed to the floor of housing 134. A double pulley unit 174 having twopulleys, 176 and 178, fabricated in one integral unit is rotatablymounted on shaft 146 such that it can counter-rotate with respectthereto. Pulley 178 is disposed in spaced relationship to pulleys 166and 168 and a belt 180 drives the pulley unit 174 in a counter-clockwisedirection from pulley 166 through pulley 176. The roller 122 is directlymounted to pulley 174 and thus rotates therewith in a counterclockwisedirection, the opposite direction of rotation to roller 120.

A pulley 184 is mounted on shaft 136 in spaced relationship with apulley 186 mounted on shaft 146. A belt 188 is mounted over pulleys 184,186, a tensioning pulley 190 mounted on a stub shaft 192 rotatablymounted in wall 150, and a pulley 194 mounted on shaft 144. Thus, shafts136 and 144 are driven in a clockwise dircction from shaft 146. Roller90 is mounted directly 6 A pulley 200 is rotatably mounted on shaft 134in spaced relationship with pulley 178 and a pulley 202 mounted on shaft204 journalled in an arm 205 that is supported by a stud shaft 206affixed to housing 134. A belt 208 drives pulley 200 from pulley 178 ina counter-clockwise direction. The roller 92 is affixed to pulley 200and thus rotates in a counter-clockwise direction therewith, in theopposite direction of rotation of roller 90.

The high speed conveyor 22 is mounted between spaced rollers 210 and 212and driven by a motor (not shown). The leaves thereon are propelled overthe background plate 26, which is mounted by a bracket 214 to themachine frame.

The optical/electrical unit 28 is mounted in a housing 216 supported onthe machine frame by opposed extensible struts 218 and hinged brackets220 such that the direction of view of the unit can be adjusted forproper viewing of the leaves as they pass over the background plate.

The reject unit 30 is mounted just underneath the trailing end of thebackground plate and is operable to direct a puff of air onto leavesrejected by the unit 28 and lift them out of the ballistic path towardsecondary collection area 32. The unit 30 may include conventional airjets, connected through valves to a source of compressed air. The unit28 opens the valves upon detection of an unacceptable leaf.

The primary and secondary collection areas, 34 and 32, are mounteddownstream of the conveyor 22. The primary collection area is shown as achute 224, through which acceptable leaves will fall for transport to afurther handling process.

The secondary collection area is shown as a conveyor 226 for conveyingthose leaves found unacceptable by the unit 28 and diverted thereto by apuff of air from reject unit 30 to a further processing area. A roller228 is mounted in front of the conveyor 226 and can be driven in eitherdirection to assist leaves falling thereon either into the primary orsecondary areas, depending on which leaves are impinging thereon. Ofcourse, the nature of the collection areas 32 and 34 are not criticaland they could be reversed or both could be chutes or both conveyors.

Having now fully set forth both structure and operation of preferredembodiments of the concept underlying the present invention, it may bethat various other embodiments as well as certain variations andmodifications of the embodiments herein shown and described will occurto those skilled in the art upon becoming familiar with said underlyingconcept. All such embodiments, variations, and modifications asincorporate the spirit of the invention and depend upon its underlyingconcept are consequently to be considered as within the scope of theclaims appended herebelow, unless the claims by their language expresslystate otherwise.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for inspecting articles, which comprises:

means for arranging a group of articles in a stream,

means for propelling each article of said stream in a substantiallyhorizontal ballistic path,

means disposed adjacent said ballistic path for establishing apredetermined color criteria,

means mounted in spaced relationship with said ballistic path and saidmeans disposed adjacent thereto for comparing each article while it isin said ballistic path to the established color criteria, and

means for sorting the articles inaccordance-withthe results of thecomparison thereof with said color criteria.

2. Apparatusaccording to claim I, wherein the means disposed adjacentthe ballistic path is a background plate for establishing the colorcriteria, and

the means mounted in spaced relationship with the ballistic path isoptical means for comparing the color of each article while adjacentsaid background plate to the color criteria established thereby.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means for sorting thearticles includes:

means for directing a blast of compressed air to the articles inresponse to the comparison made .by the optical means.

4. Apparatus for arranging a random flow of articles into at least onestream, which comprises:

a first conveyor for transporting articles,

a second conveyor spaced from the first conveyor andadapted to receivearticles from the first conveyor,

means positioned between said first and second conveyors for diverting aportion of the flow from the first conveyor away from the secondconveyor, and

means positioned in the path of the articles diverted from the secondconveyor for dividing the diverted flow into a plurality of streams.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

means positioned in the path of at least one of said plurality ofstreams for projecting each of said articles in a ballistic path.

6. Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein:

the first .and second conveyors are mounted over spaced rollers, and

the means positioned between the first and second conveyors includes aroller mounted parallel to the conveyor rollers, a plurality of paddlesmounted on the roller and means for rotating the roller, wherein thepaddles engage and divert articles away from the second conveyor.

7. Apparatus according to claim 6, further comprismg:

means mounting the roller for translatory movement with respect to theflow of articles between the first and second conveyors to adjust theproportion of that flow that impinges on the paddles.

8. Apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a baffie in thepath of articles diverted by the paddles to guide them to the means fordividing the flow into a plurality of streams.

9. Apparatus for arranging a random flow of articles into single filestreams, which comprises:

a shaft mounted in the path of the random flow of articles,

first and second rollers mounted on the shaft, and

means for rotating the rollers in opposite directions to divide the flowof articles into two portions.

10. Apparatus according to claim 9, further comprismg:

baffle means mounted in the path of each of the respective flowportions, said baffles being operable to further divide the flow intostreams.

11. Apparatus according toclaim 9, further comprismg:

a high speed conveyor belt mounted in'the path of at least-one of thestreams forspacing out the-articles and propelling them in aballistic'path.

12. Apparatus according to claim 9, further-comprisin ft high speedconveyor belt mounted in thepath of at least one of the portions forspacing out thcarticles in the portions, and

means mounted in spaced relationship with the'high speed conveyor fordividing the flow portions into streams of single articles.

13. Apparatus according to claim 12, wherein:

the dividing means are vertically extending baffles spaced laterally thewidth of less than twoarticles side by side and roller means are mountedin spaced relationship with the top of the baffles into the spacetherebetween.

14. A method of inspecting articles comprising the steps of:

arranging a group of articles into a stream,

establishing a color criteria for the articles,

propelling the articles in a substantially horizontal ballistic path,

comparing each article to the color criteria while it is in saidballistic path, and

sorting the articles in accordance with the results of the comparison tothe color criteria.

15. A method of arranging articles for inspection,

comprising the steps of:

intercepting a flow of articles,

arresting the horizontal component of the velocity of the articles,

dividing the flow of articles into portions,

propelling the articles of theportions of flow in ballistic :paths,

inspecting each of the articles, and

sorting the articles in accordance with the results of the inspection.

16. Apparatus for arranging a group of articles into a stream and forinspecting the articles, which comprises a first conveyor fortransporting articles,

a second conveyor spaced from the first conveyor and adapted to receivearticles from the first conveyor,

means positioned between said first and second conveyors for diverting aportion of the flow from the first conveyor away from the secondconveyor,

means positioned in the path of the articles diverted from the secondconveyor for dividing the diverted flow into a plurality of streams,

means for propelling each article of said stream in a ballistic path,

a background plate adjacent said ballistic path for establishing apredetermined color criteria,

optical means mounted in spaced relationship with said ballistic pathand said background plate for comparing each article while it is abovethe background plate and in said ballistic path to the color criteriaestablished by said background plate, and

means for sorting the articles in accordance with the results of thecomparison thereof with said color criteria.

said conveyor at a speed sufficient to space out the articles fallingthereon,

means disposed adjacent said ballistic path for establishing apredetermined color criteria,

means mounted in spaced relationship with said ballistic path and saidmeans disposed adjacent thereto for comparing each article while it isin said ballistic path to the established color criteria, and

means for sorting the articles in accordance with the results of thecomparison thereof with said color criteria.

1. Apparatus for inspecting articles, which comprises: means forarranging a group of articles in a stream, means for propelling eacharticle of said stream in a substantially horizontal ballistic path,means disposed adjacent said ballistic path for establishing apredetermined color criteria, means mounted in spaced relationship withsaid ballistic path and said means disposed adjacent thereto forcomparing each article while it is in said ballistic path to theestablished color criteria, and means for sorting the articles inaccordance with the results of the comparison thereof with said colorcriteria.
 2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means disposedadjacent the ballistic path is a background plate for establishing thecolor criteria, and the means mounted in spaced relationship with theballistic path is optical means for comparing the color of each articlewhile adjacent said background plate to the color criteria establishedthereby.
 3. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means forsorting the articles includes: means for directing a blast of compressedair to the articles in response to the comparison made by the opticalmeans.
 4. Apparatus for arranging a random flow of articles into atleast one stream, which comprises: a first conveyor for transportingarticles, a second conveyor spaced from the first conveyor and adaptedto receive articles from the first conveyor, means positioned betweensaid first and second conveyors for diverting a portion of the flow fromthe first conveyor away from the second conveyor, and means positionedin the path of the articles diverted from the second conveyor fordividing the diverted flow into a plurality of streams.
 5. Apparatusaccording to claim 4, further comprising: means positioned in the pathof at least one of said plurality of streams for projecting each of saidarticles in a ballistic path.
 6. Apparatus according to claim 4,wherein: the first and second conveyors are mounted over spaced rollers,and the means positioned between the first and second conveyors includesa roller mounted parallel to the conveyor rollers, a plurality ofpaddles mounted on the roller and means for rotating the roller, whereinthe paddles engage and divert articles away from the second conveyor. 7.Apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising: means mounting theroller for translatory movement with respect to the flow of articlesbetween the first and second conveyors to adjust the proportion of thatflow that impinges on the paddles.
 8. Apparatus according to claim 6,further comprising a baffle in the path of articles diverted by thepaddles to guide them to the means for dividing the flow into aplurality of streams.
 9. ApParatus for arranging a random flow ofarticles into single file streams, which comprises: a shaft mounted inthe path of the random flow of articles, first and second rollersmounted on the shaft, and means for rotating the rollers in oppositedirections to divide the flow of articles into two portions. 10.Apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising: baffle means mountedin the path of each of the respective flow portions, said baffles beingoperable to further divide the flow into streams.
 11. Apparatusaccording to claim 9, further comprising: a high speed conveyor beltmounted in the path of at least one of the streams for spacing out thearticles and propelling them in a ballistic path.
 12. Apparatusaccording to claim 9, further comprising: a high speed conveyor beltmounted in the path of at least one of the portions for spacing out thearticles in the portions, and means mounted in spaced relationship withthe high speed conveyor for dividing the flow portions into streams ofsingle articles.
 13. Apparatus according to claim 12, wherein: thedividing means are vertically extending baffles spaced laterally thewidth of less than two articles side by side and roller means aremounted in spaced relationship with the top of the baffles into thespace therebetween.
 14. A method of inspecting articles comprising thesteps of: arranging a group of articles into a stream, establishing acolor criteria for the articles, propelling the articles in asubstantially horizontal ballistic path, comparing each article to thecolor criteria while it is in said ballistic path, and sorting thearticles in accordance with the results of the comparison to the colorcriteria.
 15. A method of arranging articles for inspection, comprisingthe steps of: intercepting a flow of articles, arresting the horizontalcomponent of the velocity of the articles, dividing the flow of articlesinto portions, propelling the articles of the portions of flow inballistic paths, inspecting each of the articles, and sorting thearticles in accordance with the results of the inspection.
 16. Apparatusfor arranging a group of articles into a stream and for inspecting thearticles, which comprises a first conveyor for transporting articles, asecond conveyor spaced from the first conveyor and adapted to receivearticles from the first conveyor, means positioned between said firstand second conveyors for diverting a portion of the flow from the firstconveyor away from the second conveyor, means positioned in the path ofthe articles diverted from the second conveyor for dividing the divertedflow into a plurality of streams, means for propelling each article ofsaid stream in a ballistic path, a background plate adjacent saidballistic path for establishing a predetermined color criteria, opticalmeans mounted in spaced relationship with said ballistic path and saidbackground plate for comparing each article while it is above thebackground plate and in said ballistic path to the color criteriaestablished by said background plate, and means for sorting the articlesin accordance with the results of the comparison thereof with said colorcriteria.
 17. Apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the meanspositioned in the path of the articles diverted from the second conveyorincludes: A pair of axially aligned rollers, means for driving therollers in opposite directions, and a baffle mounted opposite a portionof each roller.
 18. Apparatus for inspecting articles, which comprises:means for arranging a group of articles in a stream, means forpropelling each article of said stream in a ballistic path comprising aconveyor positioned to receive the stream of articles and means fordriving said conveyor at a speed sufficient to space out the articlesfalling thereon, means disposed adjacent said ballistic pAth forestablishing a predetermined color criteria, means mounted in spacedrelationship with said ballistic path and said means disposed adjacentthereto for comparing each article while it is in said ballistic path tothe established color criteria, and means for sorting the articles inaccordance with the results of the comparison thereof with said colorcriteria.